1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a teaching device for performing teaching operation of a robot and also a teaching modification device for modifying positions of taught points or orientation at the taught points in an operation program of the robot prepared by an off-line programming system.
2. Description of Related Art
In preparing an operation program for an industrial machine such as a robot based on three-dimensional models of a robot, peripheral devices, an operation tool and an object of operation such as a workpiece using an off-line programming system, it is usual that there is a considerable error between an operation path according to the operation program and an intended operation path. Therefore, in practice, the prepared operation program is modified by successively positioning a distal end of an operation tool or a position correction tool on the workpiece (so called tough-up operation) in the real robot system. Further, there has been proposed a method of modifying position/orientation of models of a workpiece or peripheral devices prepared by the off-line programming system based on actual positions of the workpiece and peripheral devices detected by sensors in JP 2003-150219A.
Further, it has been put into practice to detect three points defining position/orientation of the workpiece by sensors such as visual sensors to shift a taught path in the operation program. However, in this method adopting the visual sensors mounted on the robot, the visual sensor is moved by operating the robot manually using jog feed function of the robot on the try-and-error basis such that three points can be captured by the visual sensor.
In the conventional techniques, in addition to preparation of an operation program by the off-line programming system at a place such as offices remote from a place of practice such as factory, arrangement and adjustment of operational machine such as robot, peripheral devices, sensors for detecting position/orientation of a workpiece are required, and further it is necessary to perform modification of the operation program by the touch-up operation or shifting of the operation path for conforming the operation path by the operation program prepared by the off-line programming with an actual operation path of the robot. Thus, it takes a considerable time for an operator to perform these cumbersome operations.